Activewear brand Vuori uses creators to build its community globally

Activewear brand Vuori has spent 2022 growing beyond its California roots, spreading the breezy SoCal lifestyle across the U.S. and around the world. On the heels of receiving a massive $400 million investment and $4 billion valuation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 late last year, the company embarked on a global marketing push as it aims to connect with consumers both locally and abroad. See all of Ad Age's 2022 Marketers of the Year here. Vuori, which is based in California, has grown exponentially since its 2015 launch, with its commitment to sustainability and Southern California aesthetic helping it compete in the saturated sportswear market. Many activewear brands focus on their apparel’s ability to withstand intense athletic performance, often demonstrated by a roster of professional athletes, but Vuori takes a different approach. It emphasizes its “athleisure” identity, showcasing how its clothing can smoothly transition from cardio to everyday activities such as chores or errands, said Cristina Fernández, managing director and senior research analyst at Telsey Advisory Group. That point of differentiation has helped the startup brand gain market share against established rivals including Lululemon and Nike. While Vuori executives declined to specify sales numbers, Fernández estimates that Vuori’s sales soared from roughly $10 million in 2017 to $469 million in 2021.Read more: How Vuori is competing against massive brands The brand has largely focused its 2022 efforts on expanding into new markets, both by introducing e-commerce opportunities in new countries such as China and Mexico and building a dozen new brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S., along with its first international store in the U.K. Vuori has revamped its marketing strategy accordingly, putting community at the core, said Kelly Loreto, Vuori’s senior director of brand marketing. A post shared by Vuori (@vuoriclothing) Vuori's community-building strategy is multifaceted, Loreto said, simultaneously aiming to create culturally relevant messaging in international markets; establishing real-life connections with consumers in U.S. cities where Vuori opened new stores, including New York and Chicago; and embracing social media—specifically TikTok—to flesh out the brand’s identity. Over the past year, as Vuori brought online shopping to 12 global markets, the company partnered with local agencies in those countries to assist in aligning Vuori’s marketing strategy with the culture of each location, said Vuori’s Chief Marketing Officer Nikki Larson Sakelliou. In China, for example, an agency connected Vuori with two influencers on Douyin, China’s TikTok equivalent, to help promote the brand’s products, she said. The company has also established wholesale partnerships with luxury retailers internationally, such as Selfridges in the U.K. and Ireland’s Brown Thomas. With plans to continue Vuori’s international expansion into Japan and Korea next year, the brand is increasingly focused on translating Vuori’s SoCal identity to new locations, Loreto said. “In the U.S., while we still have a lot of people to reach, a lot of people are familiar with us, whereas in the U.K., Europe and China, we're still very new,” Loreto said. “Internationally, we're almost going back to the basics of brand building.” Vuori has also continued its growth domestically, adding a dozen new brick-and-mortar stores. At each new location, the brand tasked “store opening” teams with reaching out to the surrounding community of consumers, businesses and organizations, Sakelliou said. Vuori deployed out-of-home signage and in-person experiences in each new city, aiming to “drive awareness and excitement around store openings,” Loreto said. In the weeks leading up to the opening of Vuori’s New York City location on Oct. 13, the brand partnered with several local SoulCycle locations to sponsor fitness classes, she said. Vuori has increasingly prioritized in-person experiences like these, she added, beginning to partially transition its livestreamed “ACTV Club” workout classes to its physical stores. The brand aims to make its stores “community hubs,” according to Sakelliou, with plans to launch more than 100 new stores over the next five years. Establishing physical stores “tends to be a marketing vehicle” for apparel and footwear brands, “attract(ing) traffic” and “build(ing) greater brand awareness,” Telsey Group’s Fernández added. These stores also “lift e-commerce” revenue in the surrounding area. Vuori’s increased focus on leveraging its influencer partnerships and expanding its TikTok presence has also been crucial in forming community connections. In 2022 alone, Vuori expanded its TikTok following by 2,000%, growing to nearly 140,000 followers from fewer than 7,000 in a matter of months. The brand used TikTok to launch its “Friday Fuel” and “Mindful Moments” content series, which tap into Vuori’s pool of creator partners and feature healthy recipes and mental health tips, respectively. Many of Vuori’s most successful TikTok videos star its “V1 Community Influencer Program” creators showing off Vuori products. As Vuori launched new product lines this year, from tennis apparel to outwear, the brand rallied around its 20,000-member creator community to explicitly promote these new products and also incorporate them more subtly into their content, noted Loreto. Yet even while Vuori expands its global reach, the brand plans to remain community-focused. “We’ve grown a lot, but we want to make sure we’re not lost in the numbers,” Loreto said. See all of Ad Age's 2022 Marketers of the Year here.

Activewear brand Vuori uses creators to build its community globally

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